Heat shield, where needed?

[Daniel Lorenz]

Going to install some heat protection soon in the engine bay. I am uncertain as to what extent it is needed thought.
The obvious ones are engine harness, ignition cords and crossmember for the "horse shoe" since it is really close to the exhaust.

But besides that, where is it needed?

Alot of the air in the engine bay should be refreshed at a good rate because of both the side intakes and the top and rear exit grids.
But is it enough to ignore heat protection on everything further away than 4 inches from the exhaust?

 

[Ian Anderson]

Road or track car?

If road, when stationary at lights etc no air movement past the engine etc.

I fitted a 400cfm marine bilge fan on each side with a manual switch..the firewall would go from extremely hot to hold your hand on once they had run for a minute or 2

Ian

 

[Walter]

Going to install some heat protection soon in the engine bay. I am uncertain as to what extent it is needed thought.
The obvious ones are engine harness, ignition cords and crossmember for the "horse shoe" since it is really close to the exhaust.

But besides that, where is it needed?

Alot of the air in the engine bay should be refreshed at a good rate because of both the side intakes and the top and rear exit grids.
But is it enough to ignore heat protection on everything further away than 4 inches from the exhaust?

Plug wires and throttle cable were the most important items for extra insulation up to now. (plug wires fell off their connectors and the throttle cable seized up on me) Ceramic coating of the exhaust system is important as well. CATs - if you run them - produce a lot of heat! I recommend putting them inside a well insulated muffler. Keep the exhaust system as short as possible (noise restrictions will require a compromise) . Make best use of the intakes by channeling the cool air where you want it to go (on my RCR40 the side vents originally emptied onto the rear wheels ;-)! ). If you are planning to drive in stop and go traffic electric fans are an additional means too keep things alive. I open the rear clam shell after I stop driving the car (but not to show off the engine ;-) ) and keep the electric water pump running for a while. Good luck!